décollevsdécoulerTell them apart

Which to use

“décolle” and “découler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,725
“décolle” frequency rank
#35,908
“découler” frequency rank
54633
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décolle découler
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de décoller. Couler peu à peu et de suite.

Where the eye mixes décolle and découler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. décolle runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against découler's 8 (CVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
décolle
8 ch
découler

Look-alike desk: décolle vs découler

A purely visual mix-up. décolle (\de.kɔl\) and découler (\de.ku.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54633, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décolle is recorded at frequency rank #18,725, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kɔl\. découler is at rank #35,908, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ku.le\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 54633, this pair ranks #132,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décolle vs découler

Shared letters: cdeloé. Private to "décolle": -. Private to "découler": ru.

"décolle" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "découler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décolle" and "découler" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.kɔl\ versus \de.ku.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "décolle" vs "découler" - which ranks higher?
"décolle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,725 in our French list, against #35,908 for "découler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décolle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "découler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #132,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décolle" and "découler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découler vs dérouter". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #132,698 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list